This morning, I harvested my Thai hot peppers from the back porch and made Thai hot sauce. I used this recipe, but did not strain the sauce. I only had about half a cup of peppers, much less than anticipated, so I made a tiny jar full of sauce. I know the sauce is very potent, so it will last me a while. It will keep forever (my last batch lasted two years in the fridge).
Yesterday, I harvested all remaining Thai basil, which was a ton. Back in March, I had started seeding six cells, which I then thinned to three or four seedlings. It took me more than two hours to prepare all the basil leaves for pesto. In the end I had exactly six cups of packed leaves and made a triple batch of the pesto recipe. I froze two servings in Ziplock bags for the winter (I now have three servings in the freezer as I had made a double batch back in August). Looking forward to Thai Pesto Noodle Bowls tonight. Overall, my six cells of Thai basil produced a total of 12 packed cups of leaves for six batches of pesto. A nice yield!
Today, I harvested a ton of tomatoes. Sadly, many of them had split because of the recent heavy rains. I also started my fall sowing: one row of Golden beets, one row of Chioggia beets and one row of Scarlet Nantes carrots. Towards the end of the month, I will start fall greens.
I turned three zucchini I had recently harvested into a very tasty side dish. I first drew out some water (because one of the zucchini was pretty big) by sprinkling the finger-thick slices with salt and letting them sit for 15 minutes. After blotting them dry, I sauteed them and finished them of in the oven at 450 for 15 minutes. I then added chopped pistachios and chopped fresh parsley and basil from my back porch. Super delicious with fresh baguette.
Nice big harvest today. I keep forgetting to take pictures. I harvested a ton of Italian basil and made basil pesto (really just basil, olive oil and salt; no garlic, cheese or nuts), which I froze in ice cube trays. I like to leave out the garlic, cheese and the nuts to keep it more versatile, as I also use it on fish or roasted vegetables, where I might not always want cheese.
